I meet the press, so you don’t have to
posted by TheDon

Meet The Press:
A panel of political whores and hacks discuss the day’s issues.

Topic: Fred Thompson
It’s nice to see that a life-long lobbyist who left his wife and child to party his ass off for 15 years can marry a woman younger than his daughter and then make a play for the family values crowd. And be proclaimed as the only viable true conservative in the race. Apparently having a red pickup is a plus. Sweet.
The Republicans have always preferred fake cowboys (Reagan, Bush, and they seem to think John Wayne was some kind of, well, John Wayne), so Fred seems like a natural choice.
Mary Matalin says the R’s are missing a candidate who believes in limited government (which is how she defines conservatism). Yeah. No shit. And your solution is the professional lobbyist? heh. Good luck with that!

Topic: Bill and Hillary
Two new books sliming them. Big deal. I think everyone has made up their mind about their marriage. It amuses me that their one marriage fascinates the R’s WAY more than the 357 marriages of their candidates.
It is increasingly difficult to find anyone defending Bush (outside of Fox Noise).
Mary Matalin and the Republican strategist seem to think Liberal is a bad word and Conservative is a magical good word. How very quaint. Apparently the pendulum swing was way over their heads.

Topic: Al Gore
Can we just wait until he gets in or not to spend a lot of time on this? Huh? Personally I hope he does not get in. I think he deserves better than the treatment he will get during a run. He won once and that should be enough for anyone.

Topic: Obama
Every election since 1980 has had a Bush or Clinton in it. They think it’s time to change that. Bush and Clinton fatigue. They are at least half right. No More Bushes!!! 8 years of peace and prosperity were kinda nice. Having the liberal of the family in charge wouldn’t hurt my feelings, but I’m ok with most of the Democratic candidates right now.
Matalin: We have to be objective or we will lose. If we don’t know who the enemy is we will lose. Running against Hillary will be hard.
She seems to really fear a Hillary candidacy. Matalin might not be as stupid as I have thought in the past, or at least not as dishonest.

Topic: Edwards
Bob Shrum’s book called out Edwards on his Iraq war vote. Edwards releases a statement calling Shrum a conceited liar. Shrum then defends Edwards on the show.
Shrum says Kerry isn’t running because of the beating he took over the joke he told last year which (my characterization) was distorted beyond recognition by the cynical liars in the right-wing noise machine. (Hi Sean! Hi Billo! Hey Rush! Wazzup, Fox Noise!)

Topic: The New Yorker has an article about “conservatives” abandoning Bush.
Matalin claims 70% of conservatives love Bush: Supreme Court nominees, transforming the military (WTF?!?!? INTO WHAT?!?!?), peace through strength (Peace? What? forget the earlier comment about her being smart and honest) Claims that so *very* many great presidents had popularity problems. heh. Calls Newt wrong about the next R having to run against Bush.

Some talk about how the immigration bill splits the party. Ya think? They people who fund the party want all the low-wage workers they can get. The people who vote for the party want all them brown people to go back where they came from, and stay there. Conflict, anyone? I really think this is the big one – the issue that cripples this coalition between the country-club set and the trailer-trash racists.

Carville piles on Fredo and points out that the Dems in the debate will talk about W every chance they get, and the ‘pubs won’t. Interesting – I can’t tell from this apearance that Carville has a preference in the field.

Bob Shrum thinks healtcare will be a central theme in the campaign. From his lips… He and Carville praise the depth of the Dem field for the number of ideas which are coming out and being discussed.

Murphy (R strategist) says that if they nominate a good candidate they will be in the presidential race. Good luck with that. I don’t see an electable onr in the bunch. They are a sad, sad bunch.

Matalin seems to be for permanent occupation of Iraq. Anything less will be irresponsible.
They dig in Shrum’s book and find a quote from Carville explaining his strategy in bars. Go ugly early. He refuses to explain in front of his embarrased wife, but the meaning seems obvious. It does explain his marriage.

roll credits

Shortwave Report for Central Asia, Part 2
posted by Susan Stark (part 1 is below)

COORDINATED UNIVERSAL TIME

For those who’ve listened to shortwave radio for a while, this is a fancy term for World Time, or Zulu Time, or Greenwich Mean Time. GMT is the standard by which all other time zones begin and are measured by; it is literally the World’s Time.

It’s also a pain in the ass, because it is written out in 24 hour notation, which is something Americans don’t use unless they’ve been in the military. More often than not, a shortwave broadcaster or program uses GMT when stating what time a program or transmission comes on. It’s easier to do that than to write out all the time zones the particular broadcast can be heard in. GMT time is constant, it has no daylight-savings adjustment.

As I write this blog, the Local Time is 5pm here in New York. That is 1700 hours in military time. New York is in the Eastern time zone, which is four hours behind GMT. So in order to figure out current GMT, I must add four hours to the military time, which is 2100 hours. This 2100 hours is the time *everywhere*.

Central Asia, or the “Stans” specifically, has three time zones in it. Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and the western part of Kazakhstan is five hours (+5) ahead of GMT. Kyrgyzstan and eastern Kazakhstan is six hours (+6) ahead, with these two countries the only ones with Daylight Savings. Afghanistan has it’s own unique time zone–it’s four-and-a-half hours (+4:30) ahead. So when the BBC gives it’s program listing, it looks something like this:

FREQUENCIES: AFGHANISTAN, IRAN & CENTRAL ASIA All Times GMT

< From To Days Frequency (kHz) 01:00 03:00 Daily 7320 01:00 02:00 Daily 9410* 02:00 07:00 Daily 11760 02:00 02:30 Daily 1413 03:00 04:00 Daily 1413 03:00 06:00 Daily 15575 07:00 07:30 Daily 15575 07:30 09:00 Sat-Sun 15575 09:00 15:00 Daily 15575 15:00 17:00 Daily 11760 12:00 16:00 Daily 15310* 13:00 14:00 Daily 1314 18:00 20:00 Daily 5955 18:30 20:00 Daily 9485 18:00 18:30 Daily 1413 19:00 21:00 Daily 1413

* South Asia programmes

So to find out from here when the BBC will be broadcasting in Dushanbe on the 7320kHz frequency above, take it’s GMT time (1am) and add five hours. BBC broadcasts on this frequency at 6am Local Time. This 11760kHz frequency is trickier. The 1500 hours is harder to convert to standard notation, but in any case it is 3pm GMT. Add five hours to 3pm GMT, and it’s 8pm Local Time. To find out GMT from Local Time in Dushanbe, subtract the current time by five hours, and convert to military time notation.

Here is a military/standard notation conversion chart:

That’s it for now.

Your Man in Istanbul

The delay leaving JFK was four hours, and it was at the gate–but after boarding. But Turkish Airlines was notable for what it didn’t do. It didn’t keep giving us pointless updates (“we’re 38th in line for take-off”). When it was time to go, we went. They didn’t act like people were unreasonable for getting up to pee, and when it was time to take-off they didn’t freak out about making everyone sit down posthaste. And they didn’t forget to crank up the A/C or dole out lots of beverages while we were waiting. Memo to American carriers: free fluids will keep trapped passengers happy for hours.

A day later and that peeled-grapes-eye feeling later, I’m in Istanbul, the greatest achievement of Islamic civilization. An amazing world-class city with layer upon layer of history, architectural and otherwise, no one should die without having seen it.

Tomorrow I’ll go see “Spider-Man 3.” (Istanbul has a highly developed movie culture.) Then, it’s off to Dushanbe, where blogging may or may not be possible.

Proof!
posted by TheDon

from Salon

I think the greatest proof there is no God is that most of the Ramones are dead and most of the Rolling Stones aren’t.

indeed. In the same vein, I remember well the night that John Lennon died. I was watching Monday Night Football with a friend, and his immediate reaction to Howard Cosell’s shocking announcement was “Why couldn’t it have been Ringo?”

Presumably argued without irony…
posted by TheDon

from Salon’s WarRoom

Libby’s lawyers argue that the assertion Plame was covert, based on an unclassified summary of her classified file, “is tantamount to asking the Court and Mr. Libby to take the government’s word on Ms. Wilson’s status, based on secret evidence, without affording Mr. Libby an opportunity to rebut it. Such a request offends traditional notions of fairness and due process.”

ummmm…… yeeeessss….. Yes it does… Remember the scene in Canadian Bacon?
“There’s a time to think, and a time to act. And this, gentlemen, is no time to think. “

no, wait… not that one… This one:

“Sir, the Helms amendment and NSC order 725 both specifically prohibit the use of Omega Force against Caucasians. “

Taking the government’s word based on secret evidence without an opportunity to rebut is not specifically proscribed for white non-muslims, but it kinda goes without saying, doesn’t it?

TGIF! Drinks are on me!
posted by TheDon
Friday means a drink recipe. Today is an original from me, which makes up for its simplicity by being really good.

Grape Sodapop
fill a tall bar glass with ice cubes
pour in 3oz grape-flavored vodka
fill the glass with club soda

Vary the amount of alcohol according to taste, natch. This should give about a 2-1 ratio of soda to vodka. It’s a great refresher on a hot summer day. Cheers!

Let Me Introduce Myself

I’m Susan Stark, another guest blogger along with TheDon. I’m still gettin’ hang of this bloggin’ stuff, and because I’m still gettin’ the hang of it, my first post is down below this one. Hope you enjoy the “Shortwave Report for Central Asia, Part 1”.

Ciao

It’s like Memorial Day once a month!
posted by TheDon

Fort Lewis will now hold a memorial service for its fallen soldiers every month. Patriotism! Yeah!

Fort Lewis, which this month has suffered its worst losses of the war, will no longer conduct individual memorial ceremonies for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead the post will hold one ceremony for all soldiers killed each month, the Fort Lewis acting commanding general, Brig. Gen. William Troy, wrote in a memo to commanders and staff last week.

Wait. What?!?!? Could there be any stronger indication of just how fucked up things are than this? NO INDIVIDUAL SERVICES?!?!? FOR SOLDIERS KILLED IN WAR?!?!? They have GOT to be kidding.

Give me a moment. I’m going to go pound my head on the wall until this makes sense.
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.
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Ok, I understand now. I guess if they still don’t have body armor and the right humvees four years into the war, we give them contaminated water, pay them 1/10 of what we pay the mercenaries contractors, we treat the injured soldiers like shit, and there’s really no good reason for them to be there, what the hell does a group memorial service add to the outrage? A drop in the ocean. Forget I even mentioned it. I’m sure the media will.

We’ve been too passive and deferential to Iraqi sovereignty
posted by TheDon

I have to admit, that’s EXACTLY what I have thought. Good to see that our military leaders on the ground in Iraq are catching up.

from WSJ:

But even the staunchest supporters of the “surge” strategy acknowledge that the U.S. must do more to push political reconciliation in Baghdad among feuding Sunnis and Shiites. One debate roiling Baghdad now concerns whether the political process is stalled because elected officials are merely inneffectual or because they are more interested in advancing their sectarian agendas than in governance. The strategy review conducted for Gen. Petraeus seems to conclude it is a bit of both. The report argues that Iraq is essentially a failed state and that the U.S. must devote far more effort to making Iraq’s ministries work, said officials who participated in the review.

“We’ve been too passive and deferential to Iraqi sovereignty,” says one U.S. military official involved in a review of the surge for Gen. Petraeus. It also recommends that the U.S. take a more active role in “isolating the irreconcilable Iraqi government officials from the reconcilable ones” by demanding they be replaced, said the military official who was involved in the review. Stephen Biddle, who served on the panel, said he believes Iraq is in the midst of a low-grade sectarian civil war and that U.S. forces should be used as leverage to compel Sunnis and Shiites to reach an accord.

Because nothing will win the hearts and minds of the people of Iraq, or bestow more legitimacy on their government than having the USofA pick their government ministers. Idiots.

also from that article:

Pentagon officials and the White House are developing rough proposals to begin withdrawing tens of thousands of soldiers sometime next year as a way of defusing some of the public fury over the war and making it less of an issue in next year’s presidential and congressional elections.

Nice to know that the main focus is on winning the next presidential election “meeting our moral obligations to the people of Iraq”, and “fighting them over there or they will follow us home.”